A compilation of hobbies, interests, and wandering thoughts.

To those of you who believe that the Native American soverign nations are living in peace on this continent I urge you to open your eyes.

To my fellow americans, winter is one of the roughest times for most living on a reservation. Sources of heat are hard to come by. Support your local reservation by sending a care package. Blankets, clothes from christmas that are three sizes too big, canned foods, and candles are always appreciated.

To those of you who will read this and make an effort through prayers, through giving, and through spreading the word I wish for you miraculous blessings. There is strength in Unity and Peace. ~Kat

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Alex White Plume, the former tribal chief of the Ogalala Sioux Pine
Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a fervent activist for Indian causes who has fought federal intrusions on Indian land, has suffered DEA raids and has had his crops destroyed because he exercised the rights of sovereignty. He lost his home in a fire on December 21st.
It burned to the ground with all his belongings, caused by what is now
believed to be an electrical spark. (See report in the Daily Kos.
HYPERLINK
“http://www.dailykos.com/tag/Alex%20White%20Plume”
His wife, Debra White Plume, has been an activist most of her adult
life, beginning with the standoff at Wounded Knee in 1973, through
several succeeding years of a “reign of terror” during which she was
shot for speaking candidly about her views. She is a frequent lobbyist
in Washington DC for Indian causes in general and for her people. Alex, who has also been a successful rancher and entrepreneur, who with his wife, have been good friends of mine for several years, and has raised horses and buffalo, chose to engage in industrial hemp farming, with the full approval and blessings of the Pine Ridge tribal council in the late 1990’s, and I helped him plant by hand, in 2000, without the use of any mechanized tools, a year’s worth of seeds which enjoyed the blessings and prayers of the tribe with special ancient Lakota rituals. With his tiospaye (extended family), we crawled across that dry earth for hours at a time on our hands and knees planting
seeds, praying over each one of them. That experiment resulted later
in a raid by the DEA, in which they appeared with guns drawn and
helicopters flying overhead, and slashed his crop to pieces, hauling off
the tall healthy stalks which had been pre-sold to actor Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers, The People vs. Larry Flynt, etc.) and another buyer in Kentucky. This raid directly challenged the sovereign right of the Oglala Lakota Nation to form its own laws and policies concerning such issues. He has since suffered repeated harrassment by the FBI, the DEA, and the courts in South Dakota, and is under a court restraining order now. A PBS documentary has been made about the planting and the raid. See HYPERLINK
“http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2007/standing/“http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2007/standing/

With the recent blizzard, he is obviously under seige. He needs help.
They lost absolutely everything, and now they suffer severe weather
conditions and few resources.

Pine Ridge has a population of 28,000, according to a Colorado State
University study, and occupies the poorest region of the United States, on par with third world countries, at 85%.